Alexander Armstrong’s Best Christmas Ever, review: a guilty pleasure that charmed no end
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a splash of seasonal tackiness and Alexander Armstrong’s Best Christmas Ever (ITV) delivered it by the bucketful. It was a one-off variety bash with eggnog coursing through its veins.
As a guilty pleasure it charmed no end. And that’s despite the curious seriousness that comedian and crooner (and Pointless host) Armstrong brought to the shindig. As Bake Off judge Prue Leith outlined her family tradition of spreading Christmas stuffing on bread, for instance, he seemed to be itching to subject her to a Paxman-style (as opposed to Paxo-style) grilling.
Fortunately, the guests were more than willing to be frivolous on the presenter’s behalf. Joining Leith on the sofa, soap star brothers Ryan and Adam Thomas sang hosannas about their unconventional love of Yorkshire pudding on December 25. They also revealed a special talent for cracking up at single-entendres that nobody else had noticed.
A selection box of chuckles were elsewhere provided by personable stand-up Chris Ramsey. Cold Feet actress Fay Ripley, for her part, revelled in her role as Christmas Head Girl when revealing she had her gift-buying all wrapped up by the end of September.
Ripley’s ability to stay calm and collected amid the frenzy of the season was confirmed as she later helped an audience member win a holiday in New York by furnishing punchlines to Christmas-themed visual clues (the image of an I’m A Celebrity… presenter plastered over a hallway was “Dec the Halls” and so on).
Armstrong, meanwhile, showed off his genuine musical talent when joined by singer Alfie Boe for a tongue-in-cheek medley of Christmas classics. They hopped, skipped and jumped from White Christmas to Mistletoe and Wine via Fairytale of New York.
It was outrageously silly and in other circumstances may have verged on unwatchable. But some things – appalling knitwear, paper-crowns and cheesy singalongs – just make sense at this time of year. Armstrong and his jolly helpers demonstrated the point with a wink and a cheeky yuletide grin.